Brick Wall, Cliff, End of the Road

The universe loves an effective dissipative structure because it enhances the flow of energy towards equilibrium. Humans are one such dissipative structure that enhances the flow of energy towards equilibrium. Humans have recently evolved to become rRNA, identical in function to rRNA found in their constituent cells, that function to build technological cells, distribution systems and various tools to enhance energy flow, mostly from fossil fuels, but also from hydroelectric  nuclear and organic sources. The cooperative human dissipative structure is called civilization. The metric of success is found in the volume and rate of release of trapped energy into the electro-magnetic milieu or aether and the efficiency in reproduction of the dissipative structure.

The Great Orb of Dissipation keeps things stirred-up on Earth’s surface. Matter constantly falls towards equilibrium on Earth’s surface but never reaches it for long before it gets stirred again.

If in the mutations of information a more effective dissipative structure can be found, it will soon gain a decisive edge over other dissipatives and replace them. Entire systems and their human constituents seek to maximize energy flow and growth. You could say that the universe selects for greed and that even the cooperative efforts of mankind are a type of greed meant to open new energy frontiers and maximize flow. The desire for the successful release of energy from atomic bonds or nuclei is so great that the incidental damages are often overlooked. Humans, like all evolving dissipatives, are laser focused on self-promotion and increasing the flow of energy through their own bodies and through the technological cells they work within, hoping in the eternal competition to maintain and reproduce their own structures through the creation of entropy. It is because of this prime directive of the universe that many considerations and constraints were simply never put on the drawing board. Even with the recognized imminent peril of ecosystem destruction, growth and energy flow are sought and individual humans spend much of their time trying to invest in the fastest growing and most profitable dissipative structures. Kinder, gentler dissipatives will be unable to overcome the more greedy, cavalier types.

Greedy dissipatives celebrating a killer day trading the market.

It is for this reason that energy exhaustion  will soon be accomplished by the technological energy consumers. The entire ecosystem of dissipative structures, like the technological  system, creates paths of least resistance for energy flow comprised of selected dissipatives. The ecosystem can never be in overshoot because it is limited by its daily budget of solar turbulence. The technological system can overshoot because its growth is funded by release of energy from finite fossil fuels and those  orchestrating the growth are only interested in the self-satisfaction of having a greater energy flow and number of dissipative structures than the competition, something instilled in people’s brains over many millions of years of competition in the ecosystem. The greed works well in the ecosystem which has natural checks and boundaries, but not in the technological system where unfettered growth and consumption leads to rapid depletion of finite energy stores. Humans seems unable to curb their appetites because they are dissipatives that have evolved to be, or attempt to be, number one in the competition for energy flow and reproduction. They will even likely struggle to maintain the doomed system as long as energy flows through it instead of pulling back towards a more sustainable position. Humans will be unwilling to take a voluntary retreat in wealth, energy flow or hierarchy in anticipation of energy deficit which is itself denied as a possibility. Meanwhile two-hundred thousand human dissipatives more or less, are added to the world’s population each day and each would like to eat well and participate in the civilization of technological cells that produce a wide variety of consumer goods and comforts as they dissipate energy. In the developing zero-sum situation it seems increasingly unlikely that adequate energy will be available to satisfy newcomers when the existing stock of dissipatives will themselves be dying en masse from energy starvation.

This is what it looks like when the dissipation is over. There are a few plants that seem to be making a living from the sun’s input.